Resumen de Collecting copies of ‘the most charming fountain in Rome’: Taddeo Landini’s Fontana delle Tartarughe
During the first quarter of the twentieth century, the vogue for garden fountains, the passion for Italian luxury goods, and the enthusiasm for high-quality reproductions of Italian Renaissance sculpture reached unprecedented heights among America’s wealthiest collectors. These predilections coalesced in the acquisition by six such moneyed families of copies of what was widely considered to be ‘the most charming fountain in Rome’, Taddeo Landini’s late sixteenth-century Fontana delle Tartarughe, which they placed on the grounds of their palatial estates. This article examines the history of these copies – by whom, when, and where they were purchased; who produced them; and where they were installed – shedding new light on an overlooked chapter in the history of American collecting and contributing to the rich and growing field of art market studies, an area of research that merges art history, economic and social history, museology, and material culture studies.
